Telcoflash: Telecom Market News

Microsoft is launching Virtual Earth 3D to compete with Google Earth. It will also allow video downloading via its Xbox Live Marketplace. FT plans launching a movie making unit. The target is to produce about 10 to 15 movies a year.

Softbank and News Corp. plan to bring MySpace, the Internet social networking site, to Asia. PT Telkom (Indonesia) will participate in the nation's fiber-optic network construction tender to be launched in 10/07 and cost $1.5bn.

Cingular has added its first HSDPA-enabled smart phone, the 8525 Pocket PC, with Microsoft Windows Mobile OS. Tacom (Tajikistan) is launching 3G services over its network. Iusacell and Movistar (Telefonica Moviles in Mexico) are discussing about swapping...

Hungary: the number of fixed line connections reached 3.38m in Sept., down 0.3%, but the number of ADSL lines grew 5% to 252,000. Wataniya Telecom (Kuwait) reported a subscriber base of 8.8m at the end of Sept. SingTel (Singapore) said it currently has...

According to the Tickbox Sicap study, mobile subscribers are dissatisfied with advanced services. 54% of high-spend consumers (aged 16-34) have experienced problems with advanced mobile services, be it internet browsing, photo or video messaging. 25%...

According to the local telecom regulator Arcep, the French telecom operators have generated €1.1bn in revenues from customers. Fixed and mobile telephony, combined with Internet accounted for 80% of the revenues or €7.9bn (+2.3%). VOIP has 4.8m subscribers...

Motorola forecasts that mobile phone could cost less than $15 and should be available in developing countries by 2008. This could lead to another 100m people a year getting their first phones.

Following its disqualification on technical grounds in the bid for huge BSNL mobile contract, Motorola filed a case in the Delhi High Court. The Indian court temporarily stopped BSNL from awarding a large contract. But now, Motorola will have to answer...

A few set of market information released this week: Infonetics Research predicts there would be 70m IPTV subscribers worldwide by 2009. Sales of IPTV equipment would increase from to $6.8bn over the 05-09 period. According to ABI Research, there would...

Optical start-ups interest VCs. After Optium last week, Opnext is filing for an IPO. Other candidates could be Santur and NeoPhotonics. Tekelec could announce in coming days plans to sell its switching business to Ericsson. Tekelec tried to enter the...